Sailor Moon R episode 54 review

This was one of my favorite episodes as a kid! Rei (whom Rei Ayanami is named after, not the other way around) is the queen of her all-girls school festival, and she shows off her bossy side by ordering around minions to set things up perfectly. The other girls, who were taking her position as shrine maiden as she prepared for the festival, show up to hear Rei sing. But as she does, the Monster of the Week attacks, and Moonlight Knight comes in to save the day, with Sailor Moon finishing things off as always.

What I found most notable in this episode is that they had Rei’s voice actress Cristina Valenzuela sing an actual song… but not the song from the original dub. That one was named “Oh Starry Night.” Perhaps this one was more faithful to the lyrics of the Japanese version of the song. Either way, Valenzuela gives a great performance for the little bit of the song we did get to hear, and Queen Rei gets her time in the spotlight.

Makoto’s turn next episode.

Best Sailor Guardian of the episode: Mars (3)

Episode rating: 9/10

Sailor Moon R episode 53 review

Deep question of the day: Is it possible to commit no mistakes, and still lose, in chess? Because that would not be a weakness, that would be what we call “life.”

If you think I’m stalling before talking about this episode, that’s because I am. This episode is literally Mamoru and Usagi taking care of a baby together, which raises so many questions. How did a random middle/high school student get the rights to take care of a baby while the baby’s mother was in the hospital? Why was it Mamoru with Usagi, when the last few episodes had established that Mamoru doesn’t have his memories back? How come they just randomly allowed the bad guy to spell Usagi for a short time in taking care of the baby? And most of all, what the hell does all this have to do with the main plot?

In any case, the baby learns to walk and to talk in front of Mamoru and Usagi before her mother picks her up, so I guess they were good babysitters. But come on. This episode stretched the already stretched-out bands of plausibility, and I’m not sure if we’re going to ever get it back after this.

Best Sailor Guardian of the episode: Mercury (she served as the voice of reason in this episode, then she learned and used a new attack when the Monster of the Week showed up)

Episode rating: 3/10

Sailor Moon R episode 52 review

Minako gets into a sticky situation where she has to keep on helping out this little girl from being bullied. After going to show-and-tell with her and trying to prove that Sailor Moon (& Venus) exist, she gets on the bus with the class, when all hell breaks loose. Monsters attack, and Usagi shows up in a fake-teacher form. Eventually, of course, Moonlight Knight shows up to help Sailor Moon and Venus beat the bad guy.

But the line of the episode came from Sailor Moon, who said, “After all, kids aren’t just innocent and cute, we depend on them to take care of us after our retirement!” Which… isn’t all that out of touch with reality. It’s actually… quite profound, in a weird way. Bonus points to Minako for putting up with all these kids and not going insane; I think Rei would have burned them all to death.

Best Sailor Guardian of the episode: Venus

Episode rating: 7/10

Sailor Moon R episode 51 review

It’s wacky shenanigans time again. This time, Umino saves a spot at a certain spot under the cherry blossoms, and Naru zips him up in his own sleeping bag while everyone else has a picnic. True love. Then Usagi puts hot sauce on a sandwich and gives it to Rei. The two of them just can’t get along, can they?

Eventually Sailor Moon meets up with Queen Serenity and gets a power-up. This is shojo and not shonen, so she doesn’t scream her way to a power-up. But now her tiara works again and she can transform via Moon Crystal Power, which had a way cooler song in the DiC dub than it does for real. In any case, Sailor Moon gets help from Moonlight Knight, then defeats the enemy (for now). And then everyone goes back to being themselves.

This episode gets high marks for being really funny. There was so much humor going on that I didn’t think we’d even have time for Usagi to transform into Sailor Moon. If it’s entertaining enough, then it ought to be rewarded with a high score, even if very little progress (if any) was made on the plot. That’s going to be the case with nearly every episode.

Best Sailor Guardian of the episode: Mars (2)

Episode rating: 8/10